Standard or thicker head gaskets.

[Andrew S]

Not for my Stag but have been trying to find an image that I’ve seen in the past I’m sure that shows a measurement you can take on the cylinder head to determine if it’s been skimmed too much and needs a thicker gasket

Has anyone else seen this photo or have any info that can help as need to order parts today to stay on deadline?

Thanks
Andrew

[DJT]

http://www.ldpart.co.uk/shop/shop.php?sid=sid60bd2b3f0c8bd5ed85406a2a62ecdb70&c=ex&page=145

[wilf]

Does this help? Not very good quality I am afraid.

Min head dims.jpg

[Wheelz]

LD Part website has some info that might help. This measures from the head face to the valley of the camshaft bearing bore.

LDpart Triumph Stag Parts

[Lingen]

I remember it was found that measurement differed even between new cylinder heads. I think that as a general rule a closed inlet valve should not be higher than the face of the cylinder head if fitting a standard gasket.
Personally I would always use the thicker gasket anyway. There is no down-side to doing that.
Mike.

[Andrew S]

Thanks Dave, Wilf and Chris

[Andrew S]

I remember it was found that measurement differed even between new cylinder heads. I think that as a general rule a closed inlet valve should not be higher than the face of the cylinder head if fitting a standard gasket.
Personally I would always use the thicker gasket anyway. There is no down-side to doing that.
Mike.

Thanks Mike. The main reason of asking is that he is only doing one head gasket leak which is a small water leak into the V which we could see happening. So, if he fits a thicker gasklet one side and the other is standard, wont this bugger things up?

[Andrew S]

Does this mean anything on the old gasket?

[marshman]

To be honest if you have one head off because of a leak why not pull the other head as well, you are well over half way there - you already have coolant drained, carbs are off, inlet manifold is off etc. Not much extra work to pull the other head - cam cover off, "park the cam sprocket", undo exhaust flange (3 nuts), then undo 5 head nuts & remove studs and finally 5 head bolts, lift off head (assuming no studs are seized - but you could check those one by one before you do anything else).

If one gasket is leaking and the heads have not been off for a few years then who is to say what state the other gasket is in? Personally I remove the other head as well and just buy a pair of thicker head gaskets - if you buy the decent ones you are assured of good quality and both heads matching. No guess work and you also get piece of mind for not much extra investment in time and money.

[Andrew S]

You’re Roger, yes, I’ve now persuaded him to do both with my help and he’s ordering thicker gaskets and new studs
thanks for the advice

[mike@thenook]

It has to be the way to go Andrew, glad he’s agreed to the plan

[richardthestag]

double the number of snapped studs and helicoils

[marshman]

double the number of snapped studs and helicoils

You pessimist you've drunk the beer again and your glass is half empty, I've just been to the bar and have a full glass If the first head had zero snapped studs and zero helicoils, then doing the other head it could still be zero

On a more serious note, it's something everyone worries about and we all hear about, but as with everything in life you only ever seem to hear "bad news" stories. You don't hear the " I took the heads off my Stag last week to sort a leaking gasket, only took a couple of hours, had no problems, put it all back together and everything was fine" type good news stories. I suspect a lot do come apart relatively easily, as long as patient "gentle" persuasion is used and, to quote the latest popular phrase "ham fisted gibbons" don't get too carried away and use brute force to shear/strip every stud/thread. If the studs are that seized it probably needs sorting anyway - so why do a half arsed job?

[Andrew S]

We took the first head gasket off and all undid expect for one and that was cut as the head could be lifted The next head to be done may be different: :0

[richardthestag]

Fingers crossed Andrew